Nina Talbot’s Veterans is a new series of portraits that will be on view at the Bronx Museum of the Arts from March 13, 2014 through July 6, 2014.Veterans reveals the rarely told intimate and personal stories of men and women who served in the United States Military. Through the paintings we learn what brought these men and women to serve in the first place, about life after service, and how their experiences impacted their lives. In translucent layers of paint, Talbot portrays the individual soldier’s against wartime scenes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba and Pearl Harbor along with elements of the veteran’s life before, during, and after their service. The paintings, along with written stories by Sophie Rand, were informed by interviews conducted by the artist and photographs.

“If one is not a veteran or doesn’t have a loved one who is a veteran, one would not know the struggles that they contend with and that’s what I set out to capture”, Talbot says, in describing her intention with this series.

Born in the Bronx, Talbot’s artwork explores personal narratives of community members whose life histories are hidden beneath their presence in our daily lives. Depicted are portraits of Bronx residents who continue to serve their fellow veterans through groups like Military Women in Power and by volunteering at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. Veterans is an expression of an understandding of those personal narratives. “This is my service to their service”, says Talbot.

There will be two public events related to this exhibition: Open House on Sunday, May 4, 2014 from 2-5 pm, and 1040 Lounge, featuring a discussion between Nina Talbot, Sophie Rand, and veterans featured in the series on Friday, May 23, 2014 at 7 pm at the Bronx Museum.